Biographical Sketch

Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch is Associate Professor of Global Health at the Julius Center for Health Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands / Visiting Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is a cardiovascular disease epidemiologist with particular experience in nutritional epidemiology and the application of epidemiologic methods for chronic disease research in international multi-centre cohort studies and health and demographic surveillance in settings with a high prevalence of infectious diseases. Current research projects focus on pregnancy-induced hypertension, maternal and neonatal mortality, diabetes research among sub-Saharan African native and migrant populations in Africa and Europe and the interface of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

She has extensive experience in research capacity building particularly in epidemiology and chronic disease epidemiology in Sub-Saharan Africa as Academic Head of the Masters of Science in Epidemiology program at Wits University (2005-10) and as a principal investigator and collaborator in capacity building training programmes and courses in epidemiology and global health such as the Wits Non-Communicable Disease Research Program. Recent activities focus on e-learning research capacity building activities for international health professionals (www.elevatehealth.eu) at Utrecht University and the use of mHealth to enhance maternal and child health.